The 2008 To-Do List

The purchase anniversary of Ballardia in September was a good time to revisit what we've done in the year of Ballardia living, but the advance of the New Year is a good time to figure out Where We are Going. Which to be honest, I probably wouldn't have done had I not stumbled across the 'What are your plans for 2008' discussion on houseblogs.net while trying to live vicariously through other people's house projects.

Lest I be overwhelmed with the depth and scope of the list, I'm going to break it out by the Greek Elements:

AIR:

1. fix the broken basement window pane which we have temporarily taped over with cardboard, and by "temporary", I mean at least 4 months and counting. This totally belongs on a Wall of Shame somewhere.
2. weatherstrip the basement windows
3. insulate the garage

WATER:

1. Seek and Destroy the source of the basement water entry
2. Deal with stormwater runoff from the back downspout
3. Extreme Chaos Project: Bath Edition. Replace the Tub Faucet, Replace Ugly Yellow Plastic Tub Tile with Subway tile
4. Stop the flow of tears every time I look at my to-do list.

EARTH:

1. fill in and sod the bare patches left by the Side Sewer Adventure in our greenish, lawn-like groundcover
2. prune raspberries, fruit trees, roses
3. note the complete lack of "other gardening" in this category.

FIRE - or rather "flammable materials":

1. replace rotted back steps with a Ginormous Deck and french doors with the nonexistent money spent on the side sewer instead
2. paint kitchen, hall, bedrooms, all doors and trim ('Antique White' be gone!)
3. nail in base shoe on main floor where trim doesn't meet hardwood floors
4. epoxy paint cement basement floor
5. grout kitchen tile (a stretch, I admit), as I don't know whether grout burns). Another candidate for the Wall of Shame, since it's been waiting over a YEAR now.
6. Get rid of the Trusty Fisher Wood Stove. I know, that's practically asking for a power outage.
7. Finish the network termination project

Happy New Year??? After looking at the list, I think I'll open the champagne early. Or maybe start with something stronger.